MEXICAN OFFICIAL: TIGHT US BORDER TO BLAME FOR COCAINE USE

MEXICO CITY (AP)--Increased security along the U.S. border following the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington has made it harder
for smugglers to move drugs onto American soil and increased cocaine use in
Mexico, a police official said Wednesday.

Crime Prevention Director Pedro Jose Penaloza told a news conference that
cocaine smugglers afraid to cross a fortified U.S. border have begun
selling off their product at rock-bottom prices in the central states of
San Luis Potosi, Aguascalientes, Queretaro and Guanajuato.

The states have long been considered part of the "smugglers' bridge to the
U.S.-Mexican border," Penaloza said.

Penaloza said Mexico has become so saturated with cocaine that drug dealers
in some locales are offering the usually high-priced narcotic at prices
that are cheaper than the normal street price of marijuana.